I lived in Indy for a number of years (still live close) and they've used it for lots of different things since the Indians moved out like parking for IUPUI and mud racing. I just don't see any good uses for it right now. Plus it's just outside of the main downtown area which scares off a lot of people. Loved the signs though!

I lived in Indy for a number of years (still live close) and they've used it for lots of different things since the Indians moved out like parking for IUPUI and mud racing. I just don't see any good uses for it right now. Plus it's just outside of the main downtown area which scares off a lot of people. Loved the signs though!

From what I've read it was in disrepair the last several years of it's existence as a baseball park. In fact because of the conditions it was judged beneath the standards of ML baseball. If it was in bad shape 14+ years ago, it's way beyond that now too. The city owns it, and even if they were inclined to repair it, it's got asbestos issues and other issues that would make any rehab project quite expensive. Not everything can be saved.

Oh and Don Buford (photo hanging to the right of Al Lopez) began his major league career with the Sox.

I live no more than a 5-6 min. drive from the stadium and to answer the question abt. the road in the outfield, it's because following the team leaving, they turned it into a place where they ran some sort of derby car races (I honestly have no idea what it was... just some sort of racing). In fact, if you drive by now, there's still an advertisement up for it outside of CF.

I think it's really cool that someone put these up because I've tried to get into the stadium a couple times in the past few months. Unfortunately, it's pretty well secured, and frankly, it's pretty sketchy. Lots of the windows have been broken by people throwing things through them, graffiti everywhere, and just overall "dark". It's really, really sad... especially seeing those pictures of inside the park. I don't know what it is, but old stadiums always make me sad and left with weird feelings. I felt the same way after driving by Detroit stadium after the past couple of years... especially as you could see into the stadium from the road. Just wish I could have seen the places in their primes. Weird to think that so many people (including the great players) used to go there and now they're just abandoned.

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"There's only one sports team in Chicago that will get a pass. I won't name them. But it ain't us.'' - Kenny Williams

I ran midget racecars there late 97 into 99. The series that I was with was NAMARS and they ran a few shows there every year. The man who made it all possible was Kenny Allison. He had been associated with IndyCar Racing and a bunch of other stuff for a long time. Besides being the ****tiest place to race (stuffing a bull ring into a ballpark was the stupidest idea ever....EVER) the neighborhood really sucks. We were told in the pit area to hit the transporters and don't leave em till you get just west of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.....PERIOD. I hated running there, but since it was championship points you had to run there. God I was happy when that place folded for racing. I saw many cars torn to crap because there was no symmetry to that place and absolutely no banking in the corners. The surface sucked for dirt midget car racing because you need at least a 3 foot base for the clay surface. It had about 6 inches. As the race wore on.....huge holes would open up equaling even bigger problems for cars and drivers.

The thing that killed the racing there was Kenny the idiot thought that they could cover a $140,000 purse. They thought that they could get cars from all over to show up. Sizzle turned to fizzle as only about 60 showed, including yours truly. No fans came, the payouts were adjusted to the gate, the prize money sucked and I know more than a few car owners lost five figure money for 4 nights of pure hell, hot weather, and tons of rain. That killed the track, and thank God it did. I don't remember it being used for any other type of racing other than the 1/4 mile oval.

I hope that people's best memories come from baseball, not the ill-fated attempt at small time gone big bust racing.